Maninder Singh said that Indian captain Virat Kohli needs to practice his own thoughts of ‘keeping the ego in the pocket’ while playing in England. His comments came after seeing yet another poor show from Kohli on Day 1 of the third Test at Headingley.
Kohli could only manage 7 runs as India had crumbled to 73 for 9 in the 39th over after Kohli decided to bat first after having won the toss. However, at the virtual press conference before the Headingley Test, Virat Kohli commented that it is important to ‘keep your ego in your pocket’ while batting in English conditions.
Reminding this, Maninder Singh told ESPN Cricinfo: “Before the Test match, Virat Kohli had said that in these English conditions you’ve got to keep your ego in your pocket. And I think that is absolutely right. If he tries to dominate, like Virat Kohli usually does, these are not the pitches where he can bat like that. He needs to spend some time there, like he did on the previous tour where he scored almost 600 runs. Once you know the pace and know how much the ball is seaming around, they you can carry on playing your shots.”
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The former Indian spinner further added: “These are not flat Indian pitches, where you can just put your foot forward and start driving. And what Kohli preached, he will have to practice. Keep your ego in your pocket. Virat Kohli is basically making the same mistakes that he was making on his first tour of England. He is playing away from the body. It could happen to you if you are not playing regular cricket. He got out a couple of times the same way as you did in 2014, when he just got a 138 runs in 10 innings.”
Notably, Virat Kohli has been going through a rough patch for a long time and he struggled to score as well. His highest score of 42 came in the current series against England whereas he last scored a Test century way back in November 2019, during the Day-Night Test against Bangladesh a swell.
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“I think things start coming back – am I playing the wrong line? Should I be leaving these balls? All these Indian boys, in the first two Tests, they were leaving balls outside the off stump. I don’t know that happened in this Test match. They were wanting to play at it and paid the price for it. With Virat Kohli, he is going through a bad patch,” Maninder Singh concluded.
